Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

The European Commission has promised to provide “affordable” risk capital to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in developing countries and economies in transition. It proposed the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF) in October 2006, putting in €80 million of EU funds, with Germany and Norway providing the rest.

On Thursday (13 March) MEPs in Strasbourg are likely to approve a report drafted by Luxembourgeois Green MEP Claude Turmes, which states that the funding of the GEEREF is “woefully inadequate”. MEPs urged the Commission to increase its contribution.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said that it was “too early to judge whether the Commission funding is adequate”. She added: “This will depend amongst others things on how many other donors join as well as on how much private sector capital will be leveraged over time and on how the investment market on energy develops.” According to figures cited by the Commission, an estimated $9 billion (€5.9 billon) of risk capital is needed for renewable energy generation in developing countries by 2010. The Commission believes that its initial outlay could generate €1bn from private investors.

On Friday (14 March) senior Commission officials will launch the fund at an event in Luxembourg with around 50 bankers. Officials plan to hold similar meetings in Paris, London and Berlin to raise interest.

“Potentially this will be the biggest fund in the world to promote renewable energy,” said Turmes. He said that the success of the fund should be judged by whether large institutional investors took it up.

But Turmes is worried that much of the money could be sucked into transition economies, such as China and Russia, and away from sub-Saharan African countries where the need for capital is greater. He said:

“We do not want all the money taken up by the easiest projects, which are probably in China and Russia…

If we see that China is eating up too much money there will be a case for setting up a special fund.”

MEPs called on the Commission to ensure that a fixed proportion of the fund is dedicated to small-scale projects worth less than €1m. The ideas behind the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund (GEEREF) were discussed at the World Summit for Sustainable Develop-ment in 2002. Today around 1.6 billion people have no access to a reliable energy supply.